Ministry of State Security (MSS) officials in parts of Kangwon Province are strong-arming farmers into giving them rice in exchange for government-supplied rations of corn, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Kangwon Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that “MSS officials in several counties, including Sepo County, have been going around to farms and forcing farmers to exchange their government-supplied corn rations for the farmers’ rice at a one-to-one ratio. Ordinary people could never even dream of doing this, but the officials have been leveraging their authority to demand the exchanges [at great loss to farmers].”
The source said that MSS officials in some Kangwon Province counties recently received three months’ worth of corn rations. Many officials, however, have decided to coerce farmers to give up their rice harvests for the government-supplied corn rations.
MSS officials are responsible for monitoring the political ideologies of farm managers and workers under their charge, and also exercise some degree of influence over the appointment of new work unit leaders and sub-work unit leaders at collective farms.
MSS officials have the power to block a recommended appointee or, in particularly severe cases, they can obstruct the career paths for the children of farm managers they dislike. As a result, farm managers and workers go out of their way to comply with MSS officials’ demands in order to stay in their good graces.
Unfair exchanges cause resentment among farmers
Recently, one sub-work team leader at a farm in Sepo County exchanged 50 kilogram of rice for 50 kilogram of corn at the request of an MSS official in charge of the farm, the source said.
“MSS officials are able to receive corn rations, but farmers are barely able to secure even one to two months’ worth of food rations in exchange for their back-breaking work. Yet, these security officials take advantage of their higher social standing to swap out their corn for rice while the farmers who shed their blood, sweat, and tears laboring away in the fields aren’t even able to eat a proper meal with rice.
“Even though farmers now have to set their tables with corn instead of rice, they are unable to voice their complaints and continue to suffer in silence. [Farmers have no choice but to keep their grievances to themselves] because if MSS officials happened to find out, they could use their all-powerful authority to invent criminal charges. There’s no telling what could happen to you then.”
In another case, the manager of a farm told sub-work unit leaders that they had received a request from MSS officials to exchange corn for rice. The sub-work unit leaders silently complied with the manager’s orders to hand over 40 kilograms of rice for 40 kilograms of corn, the source said.
“Government rations are usually a mix of rice and corn, but this year’s distributions have been almost completely corn, so there are a lot of MSS officials going around asking for rice. The officials abuse their authority to fulfill their own needs without consideration for the farmers’ lives.
“If you have just a little bit of authority, you can empty the people’s pockets to make a living, even out in the countryside. But the farmers, no matter how hard they work, will never be able to escape poverty because they keep getting extorted [by the MSS]. It pains farmers immensely to have to bend over backwards to hand over their hard-earned rice, worth nearly double the price of corn, to MSS officials who haven’t put in an ounce of effort.”
Translated by Matthew Eteuati, Jr. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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